Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-03-21

gum trees here ana there then, al
ter long climb up steep quartz
strewn hillside, and an abrupt descent
into a gully beyond, he came to
spot that perhaps no white man foot
had ever trodden before. 1t was
level grassy space, with thickly wood
ed slopes rising on three sides of it
like an amphitheatre. Tall gum trees
grew about it here and there, but not
so closely as to shut out the starry
sky. In the middle was a grass
grown mound, where tradition said
that native chief was buried there
was a cairn of stones piled on the
top, and here and there white objects,
that might have been bones, glinted
in the faint light. 1t was an uncan-
ny place, avoided by the blacks them
selves for the most part, though they
came there to hold nightly corrobree
now and then. All was perfectly
still, except for the rushing of the
creek down below, and the low, sol
emn stirring of the wind in the tree
tops. He heaped a pile of dry sticks
on the mound, going to work slowly,
methodically, in his everyday fash
ion; set fire to it with his flint and
steel, and S ood watching it patient
ly till it leaped into a blaze; then he
turned away, and clearing away the
grass and leaves, drew with his knife
a circle round the grave.
He stripped off his shirt and laid
it aside; then he knelt down in the
circle before the fire, with his knife
and pannikin beside him, and clasped
his hands before his face and prayed.
He had never done such a thing in
his life before-at any rate not since
he was child at his mothers knee.
Perhaps the words he said may shock
you if written down-so grotesquely
blasphemous, SO pathetically horrible
were they. Yet maybe there are peo-
pie whose inarticulate creed, if put
into plain English, would not amount
to much better. "Lord Almighty"
he said, 81 don't know much about
this yer business am only a lag,
an maybe 'taint the thing for me to
speak. But if you want to kill any
one, do kill me. Maybe it's all the
same to you-and, you see, nobody
would miss me. / don't know how to
say it all right, but | reckon You'll
know what mean. Strike me dead
now, or any time you please, an let
him get better. Amen.
-Four corners TO my bed,
-Four angels round my head,
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Bless the bed that l lies oni'"
1t was the only thing of the sort
he remembered out of his far-off
childhood, perhaps the only prayer he
had ever learned. 1t may be that he
thought it of service as kind of a
devotional incantation.
He took his hands from his face
and held them clasped straight before
him, looking with vague, expectant
eyes up to the stars, and waiting for
the stroke to fall. He really had
some expectation that it would.
There was a sudden hoarse scream,
and far-Off tapping of wings in the
stiffness above his head. 1t was an
eagle haw<, disturbed from his nest
in the highest of the stringy-barks.
''Maybe he has gone to fetch the
thunder-bolt," he thought, as a frag-
ment of wild, dim nature-myth dart
ed through his mind. Woioija, scold-
jd J! And he murmured some words
in the native language-most likely a
charm.
But all was still-the fire leaped
and fiick cred, and the eagle hawk did
not come back.
He took up his knife from the
ground and drew the sharp point
quickly down his breast; then made
another cut across it and held up the
cup to catch the starting drops.
"You thought didn't mean it, but
do See, this is the first, and the
rests to come after %
He slowly lifted the pannikin and
poured the contents into the fire. AS
it Kissed and cracked in the flame he
went on speaking
''I'm goin' down in the morning to
see him once more. If you do your
part and let him get better, III come
here tomorrow night and end it. /
swear solemnly that will. You hear
me? Will that do!"
He knelt with uplifted ,blood-stain-
ed hands, looking up to the peaceful
sky. AS he looked, a falling star
drew line of light across the space
of sky between the tops of the stringy
barks and vanished.
''It's done it's done % he cried,
and flung himself forward on his face.
He lay there for some time without
moving; while the fire hickered down
and died--leaping up now and then,
and casting weird, vague lights and
shadows over the grave mound and
the PROSTATE figure.
The slow hours Of afternoon drag
ged out their cruel length; MacdOn-
aid, the oyerseer, sat by Murdoch's
side. Murdoch sat still, with closed
eyes-not asleep-Macdonald knew
that by the occasional twitchIng of
the white Inns in "a Guazrn af main and